BigWillie

This was mentioned many times last night. Short answer - this is how a bootleg works. RB/FB flare to flats on run side. WRs and TEs run passing routes. Usually have 1-2 lineman pull to show pass block. This is how the backside is supposed to open up for the boot.

he's an elected captain. Thats enough for us to debate this all day. Given that this was a captain last year .. Alot of the captain status' have to do with senority more than they have to do with anything else. And that gets us stuff like ..

What I think we can all agree on is that a bootleg was an absolutely terrible call. Especially when the coaches don't believe the quarterback can run the ball, yet in the biggest situation say "Alright we want you to run it, make sure you absolutely don't throw it though" to the one guy on the team that would have an instinct to throw the ball. I don't care if they said to Tommy 8,000 times not to throw, if he sees a defender in his face his first instinct is going to be to throw the ball. If they simply just handed it to Jano or Ozigbo there would've been no part of their brain that said, "Screw it we're throwing this one" If you choose to believe Langsdorf, he said he made it very clear that this had to be a run play.

Lewis' bad attitude isn't something that is spread throughout the team. But it is something that if it lingers could turn into an issue, especially since it is coming from one of the 'leaders' of the team. Lewis' role on this team was a point of contention this week among offensive coaches anyways. One coach wanted him demoted, while others did not. Should be interesting to see what happens now.

WRs run routes on bootleg to draw defenders off edges, and RB or FB flare to same side as QB. Nothing out of the ordinary at all about what was going on in the screenshot of the 3rd down play above. If anything, it lends to the idea of why Tommy threw the ball. Defender in his face stopping him from turning corner, defender on inside cutback lane. Ozigbo is releasing from a bad block and has lots of space. Armstong likely thought it was an easy dump off and Ozigbo is in better shape to get the 1st down than he would be. Either way, Tommy has to be aware of the situation there and the best play is just to eat a loss or no gain. I don't even remember what formation we were in on this play, but just an illustration of what a bootleg might look like while run out of I-formation ..

It's a matter of earning respect and trust from your players. Pretty much a matter of when things are rough, who are the guys that will have your back, and who are the guys that will look elsewhere. If the players feel like the coaches are not looking out for them, how can the players respect the coaches on a daily basis? Tip: they will not. Coaches are going to take the hits in the press regardless. They are paid the big bucks, and they are the ones always in front of the mic. Take the blame, save the kid.

I've seen Joe Ganz mention it, and it's true - coaches are paid millions to eat s... on a daily basis. It's part of the job description, and it's a way to protect and earn the respect of the players. Today, as soon as the game was over, what did the coaches do? Riley and Langsdorf pointed the finger directly at Tommy. IDK whether it was a run or pass. Does not matter. But if I'm a 40, 50 or 60 year old man, I'm taking the hit for a 20 year old kid. It's your job to protect these kids from situations like these and deflect blame. As a grown man, you've been there, done that, and know how to handle it better than a young kid. Just a bad situation all the way around. And the coaches are making a bad situation even worse.

I wonder if Cav will push for Lewis to be benched again? At the very least, that captain tag has to be taken away from this kid. He just doesn't get it, and certainly doesn't deserve it.

I agree, once they replaced Newby in the backfield, we were having success running the ball.....when we tried to run the ball it is. Another thing that pissed me off was Gerry blowing a cover 2 and letting someone behind him. It was VT all over again. You have one f'ing responsibility as a safety in a cover 2. Don't let anyone get the f#*k behind you dumbass!!! I've said it before on here, and each game confirms it more and more - Gerry is extremely overrated as a safety. He's not reliable as a tackle, ESPECIALLY in the open field. And when he has to turn and run in coverage, he struggles tremendously. Passes in front of him he is tremendous at reading and breaking on, he looks like an All American. You get him outside of that, and he's just not that good.

Great, so that 3rd down play call wasn't on Langsdorf. How about this - line up in I-formation, turn around, hand it off. Stop with the cute BS. Even more, why in the hell did we keep putting Tommy in the position to throw the ball around, ESPECIALLY downfield, in a downpour and windy conditions? You throw underneath in those conditions. If you cannot do that, you take what you get on the ground. It's not hard, and I don't know why Langsdorf insisted on making it that hard. The entirety of this game Langsdorf continuously thought up some of the worst possible decisions in situations, and decided that would be his decision. It's just mind-boggling, and infuriating.

On both instances here, you are COMPLETELY wrong. Illinois had no timeouts. If we run on 3rd down, our 4th down snap is going to occur with about 20-25 seconds left AT MOST. Instead, we passed it twice in a row, and Illinois got the ball back with 55 seconds left on the clock. It doesn't matter if Tommy had a wide open player and missed him, IT'S STILL ON LANGSDORF FOR CALLING THE PLAY. You run the clock, end of story. And not kicking it was absolutely the right decision. A miss in that situation just gives Illinois better field position with a ton of time on the clock due to the silly 3rd down call. The correct play was going to be to punt. If it's a touchback, so what? Illinois has to go a few extra yards, and you burn extra time off the clock. But Foltz had shown how money he was with downing punts, so give him the chance.

I made it known I was a gigantic Riley supporter. Honeymoon is over for me. You CANNOT lose games like this. This is two games out of five already where the coaches have lost games. Not the players, but simply the coaches by just horrendous game management and playcalling.

I've got alot of words I can use to describe Danny Langsdorf right now. 99.9% of them will get me banned from this board. Pure amateur. I don't care his coaching pedigree. That was some of the worst and most inane coaching decisions I have ever seen from an OC at Nebraska. And that says alot.

I would challenge anyone to go back to watch the USM game, and find a way to explain to me that McMullen is worthy of playing D1 football. No explosion, no effort, you just get very little from trotting him out there. Case in point - Southern Miss OT blocks down on Maliek at one point, leaving McMullen free. McMullen is so slow, and trying so little on a play that the OT still has time to recover from the down block and push McMullen wide on his rush. Honestly, Ross Dzuris should be playing more over McMullen at this point. Dzuris is short on talent for this level, but at least he gives complete effort out there.

Quite a few coaches with questions to answer this coming week .. Brian Stewart - He just needs to start over. It started with Davie, and now is bleeding to the rest of the secondary. Out of position, and when the DBs are in position, they do not play the ball. It's not that his position group has been bad, it's that they have been horrendously awful. Reggie Davis - His reliance on Newby and Cross needs to be examined. Great, Mikale struggles in pass pro. We have heard it. But it needs to be stated that Mikale is the most gifted runner we have on this roster. Is what we give up in pass pro worth what we give up as a team in our ability to run the ball? Newby and Cross just aren't doing it. Give Wilbon a chance. Give Ozigbo a chance. And please quit trying to make Imani into something he is not. Imani does not fit this offense. He's a short yardage and goal line back. Use him properly or not at all. Bruce Read - I'm still amazed that $500,000 of University money is being spent on this man. His special teams are special, but not in the right way. And the man rarely recruits. What exactly is he providing us, especially at a salary that usually only goes to your best assistant coaches? I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again - every scholarship on this team needs to be examined and determined whether kids deserve them or not. This is a big time football school, not a candy factory where scholarships should be handed out. You go to any of the big boy schools, and they give you opportunities. You sink or swim. If you are not working out, you find yourself going on a medical hardship or going elsewhere if you still want to play football. It should be no different here. I say this because our depth is still just atrocious. We need the opportunities presented by having extra scholarships to dip into the JUCO ranks and elsewhere to build depth immediately for next season. If we want to be nice guys again, and honor scholarships until guys 4 years are up, I'm betting next year will be no different in how erratic we will be.

I'll do it for 1/10 of the price and do it 10x better Our ST was incredibly better last year, and it was 'helped' by a guy that was not even on our coaching staff. Jamrog would offer 'advice' to our ST last year during practice. I don't even remember if Els had the ST coach last year, but whoever had it was a ST coach in name only.

Reminder: We are paying a guy $500,000 a year to coach only special teams. Bruce Read rarely recruits, unless it is a ST player, and offers no assistance elsewhere as a position coach.

Late hit on our QB, and nothing? AHAHAHAHA

That is in NO WAY pass interference. That's just a TERRIBLE call. TERRIBLE!

Gerry is not as good as everyone hypes him up to be. Put him in the open field, and the tightness he has in those hips goes on full display.

GET UP FIELD! How in the heck can the coaches keep saying this kid is better than Wilbon when he does junk like that?

These DBs ..

Ok, Imani is a senior. He's considered a 'leader' on this team. But that doesn't mean he is obligated to carries he is not earning while he is on the field. What Langsdorf wants to do on O in no way fits what Cross does best. Want to put him in on short yardage and goal line carries? Fine. But leading an offense? He should never see a carry.

Someone mentioned this in the game thread. Answer: Never There have been games in the past where tickets have not been sold even on the day of the game. Local businesses (large and small) will buy those tickets just to preserve the streak. We consider any ticket/seat purchased, no matter if it has a butt in the seat, as a count towards the sellout.

It's the gift that keeps on giving. When things go wrong for an individual, or for the team, there are still people that tend to look elsewhere rather than at themselves. How many times over the past few years have fans been the scapegoats for anger, frustration and blame from players and coaches at Nebraska?